UvA alumnus wins Theodore Roosevelt American History Award
17 June 2019
Queeny van der Spek won first prize for her thesis Hitler's Gift to America: American Motivations to Rescue Displaced Scientists from Europe in the 1930s. Van der Spek tells the story of European scientists who, with the rise of Nazism in Europe in the 1930s, found a safe haven in America. Her thesis focuses specifically on the motives behind the American interest in saving these scientists. Furthermore, she offers new insights into the American immigrant policy during the interwar period.
The jury, made up of Dario Fazzi (RIAS, chair), Megan Griffiths (winner in 2018), Tim Jelfs (University of Groningen) and Sara Polak (University of Leiden), praised her thesis for the quality of its writing, its compelling arguments and skillful use of historical materials. The first prize consists of a bust of Theodore Roosevelt and a trip to the United States, to visit the old ranch of Theodore Roosevelt.
Lennart Bolwijn, another UvA alumnus of the American Studies master's programme, won second prize, a year's subscription to Elsevier Weekblad, for his thesis Dogma, Romance and Double Consciousness: The Dilemmas of the New Negro Generation through the Travels of Otto Huiswoud and Claude McKay. The jury praised his thesis for its original construction of the simultaneous rise of the Harlem Renaissance (an artistic movement of African-American writers and artists), the Popular Front and communism in Europe.
About the award
The Theodore Roosevelt American History Award is awarded yearly by the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies in Middelburg. The award is supported by the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, the US embassy in the Netherlands, Elsevier Weekblad and Zeeland, a Dutch province. During the last four years, three UvA alumni won the price. Renee de Groot won in 2017 and Martina van Cimmenaede in 2016. Roos Maier received an honourable mention in 2016, as did Lise Koning in 2014.
American Studies at the UvA
American Studies is one of the specialisations of the History department of the University of Amsterdam. The UvA offers a Master's programme and a minor in American Studies: